Richard Long: ORIZABA TO URIQUE
RIVER DEEP MOUNTAIN HIGH

Cuadra San Cristóbal, Mexico
7 February – 7 March 2020

This project is commissioned by Oscar Humphries and produced by Joanna Thornberry,
with support by Lisson Gallery.

This February in Mexico, leading international sculptor Richard Long will present all new work at acclaimed architect Luis Barragán’s iconic modernist landmark, Cuadra San Cristóbal. Using local materials, sourced from quarries within the valley of Mexico City and Puebla, Long has created work inspired by Barragán and the local architecture.

Richard Long first visited Mexico in 1979, during which he climbed both the country’s highest mountain, Pico de Orizaba, and visited the deepest canyon, Urique, on a few of his iconic walks. Over the following decades, he has embarked upon numerous trips around the country, including thirteen days in the Sierra Tarahumara in 1987 in which he conceived the important photographic and text work, Thirty Seven Campfires. This exhibition, however, marks the first time Long has created work in Mexico City, the metropolitan center, using stone he personally selected from local municipalities— Ecatzingo, Chinalhuacan and Pachuca. The four sculptures installed on the grounds, rendered in black volcanic stone, red volcanic stone and river stone, not only nod to his longstanding history in Mexico but to the country’s rich agricultural and architectural history.

The exhibition has been conceived in careful consultation with the Egerström family — the owners and occupiers of Cuadra San Cristóbal and the family for whom the property was built. This sensitive intervention sheds new light on this well-known landmark as well as providing an unprecedented perspective on the work of one of the world’s foremost conceptual artists. This is only the second exhibition ever staged at Cuadra San Cristóbal, the first being a solo exhibition of work by renowned abstract artist Sean Scully in 2017.